WK's Top something or other... let's just say "games" and call it good list.

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Again, if I was doing a list on my top most impactful games, this would be in the top five. As I moved away from beat-em ups in the arcade scene, I happen upon Street Fighter and the 90s arcade revival scene it brought along with it. While I sucked back in the day due to being too dumb and poor to really dedicate myself to it and understand the rules and concepts of the medium; none of that dissuade me from liking the concept and obsessing over it as a kid. So much so that when I learned the games were coming to home console, I immediately wanted to see. I had my dad rent me a Sega Genesis at the time because it was the console I wanted to have after my Nintendo, but trying to play SFII on it with it's limited controller made me realize that the SNES would be a better choice if I wanted to play it and not have to buy an arcade stick to play the game properly. So in essence, this is the game that got me an SNES, which eventually lead to my RPG friends lending me Secret of Mana and FFVI, which eventually lead me to my love of the RPG genre. Go figure.

I did learn some interesting tidbits about this game. SFII: Turbo was the direct result of Capcom shutting down a fan mod of Street Fighter II: Champion Editions called Street Fighter II: The Rainbow Edition where the designers heavily modified all of the games specials to ridiculous proportions like homing fireballs, Blanka Rolls that have him loop around the screen, and other shenanigans. The game also had ridiculous speed added to it, so Capcom shut down the game but then incorporated several ideas from it for this edition. The most obvious was boosting the games speed which was a must because the original was slow as hell and I still get kind of pissy when I feel like the game is a bit too slow. It also modified some moves and added new ones for characters. For instance, Chun-Li got a fireball in the fan mod, and Capcom apparently liked it enough to give it to her. Dhalsim also gained his teleport move and as far as I know, Guile's moveset was finalized for this game cause the man has never changed since. It was also nice that this game retained elements from Champion Edition like the ability to play as the bosses.

This is probably the SF game I have spent the most time with, I even beat the game with every character and tried to go for the super secret higher difficulty endings, though I did fail on those ones. Sadly, while the SNES controller did offer the ability to use the whole moveset of the characters, that D-Pad still left much to be desired for performing special moves, so I probably wasn't quite at my peak for the series. Still I had an absolute blast with this title and it still remains one of my favorite SNES games.For those wondering, I'm a Shoto guy, but I also play Blanka, E.Honda, and M. Bison though I'm rusty with the last two. I want to get better with Chun-Li but her moveset doesn't mesh well with my style, same with Sagat.

Reminiscing about it, this does remind me that I have some of the later and more popular versions like Super Street Fighter II: Turbo and even Street Fighter III's later versions which I also enjoy, but this is the one I know the best which is why it's here and not them. Despite that, this game isn't my favorite entry in the franchise, but you'll understand that pretty soon.While I do like the fighting game genre, I never really strayed from Street Fighter or Capcom. I've played some Darkstalkers and even dabbled in Mortal Kombat with the second entry, but I've never really found the same kind of hook I got from this series. I think Guilty Gear may have been the closest.

Oh man, I've been wanting to talk about this series for awhile now. Until I made this list, I didn't quite realize how much I really enjoyed this series and how angry I am that we'll never it's proper conclusion due to both Konami kind of killing the franchise and their new business model means it will probably never see a sequel after the PSP spin-off. In truth, this entry is the one responsible for really getting me invested in the series. While I had played and enjoyed the original, I missed the second entry and it wasn't until this game came out that I began to really take notice of the series and go back to fill in the missing gaps.

I'll try to make the background synopsis brief: Very loosely based on the Chinese novel "The Water Margin" the series is set in a European/Asian influenced setting that is governed by 27 True Runes that each control a fundamental aspect of the world such as Fire, Life and Death, or even the Night. If a mortal should obtain one of these runes, they are granted immortality and eternal youth as well as the runes power. All magic in the world is derived from one of the runes as are many of the creatures that inhabit it. Suffice to say, these runes become a central element of conflict whenever they pop up in history and so the series follows a series of regional wars that erupt when countries and individuals battle it out for them. Central to the game is that all of them entail a hero caught up in a terrible war within their homelands caused by man's greed or historical circumstances and they decide to fight off the menace by building an army composed of 108 individuals to help them in their conquest. What makes the series stand uot besides it's strong casts political drama is the historical significance of the games one each other in their collected world. Events and characters in one game will sometimes wind up in later titles and this adds an interesting historical element to the games not seen in most fictional settings.

Suikoden III is set 15 years after the Dunan Unification War (Suikoden II) in a region to the northwest called the Grasslands which is a territory controlled by the Six Clans of indeginous groups who find themselves in constant territorial disputes with the Zexen Federation, a merchant guild based country that formed on the western sea border and their industry keeps pushing them eastward into the Clans territory. Fifty years prior to the story, the land had been besieged by the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia (think fantasy Rome if it were more of a theocracy) who invaded the lands to obtain the True Fire Rune. A young warrior from the Clans, only known as the Flame Champion, obtained the Rune and united the clans to push back Harmonia. After a devastating battle where the Rune's power went out of control and nearly destroyed both armies, the Clans and Harmonia made a truce that would last for fifty years on the condition that Harmonia keep some of the territory they had acquired. The truce is coming to a close and the Clans themselves have been in constant conflict with Zexen for so long, the two sides are finally getting ready to sign their own peace accords, but other figures have their own intentions for the region and it's true rune.

Unique to Suikoden III within the series, the game actually has three protagonists and the story is told from three distinct point of views through various chapters. Hugo is the son of Lucia (Suikoden II), the Chief of the Karaya Clan, and he's tasked with being the messenger to drop off records pertaining to the truce between the Six Clans and Zexen. Hugo fancies himself a warrior but he's too young to really understand the ramifications of war, and he is still confined by the prejudice between both groups against each other. He travels with his his pet Fubar, a baby Griffon he grew up with; Lulu, his childhood friend who is a few years younger than him; and Sgt. Joe, a member of the Duck Clan and the voice of reason in the group. When the war renews itself, Hugo is sidelined due to his position as future leader of the clans but also due to his age, he instead travels the Grasslands looking for the Flame Champion who saved them all years before.

Chris Lightfellow is a member of the Zexen Knights who was recently promoted to Captain of the Knights after a recent battle that saw the deaths of the former commanders of the knights, and her own heroic bravery in leading the survivors to victory after such a devastating battle. Chris loves her homeland and wishes to protect it's people but she is weary of dealing with the Zexen Council who seem to be more motivated by their business interests than their people. Thrust into the spot of leadership as well as being a beloved hero of the people and a vile Red Baron-esque foe to the enemies, Chris is a bit overwhelmed by the pressure she's put under. While her closest knights all adore her and try to do what they can to help her burden, Chris still finds herself feeling melancholic about the mysterious disappearance of her father years ago and wonders now if he may still be alive somewhere. When the war renews, Chris starts by protecting her kingdom and even commits a war crime to save her men from a dire situation, afterwards she receives information that her father still lives and is in hiding somewhere in the Grasslands. Chris goes undercover with a Harmonian spy named Nash (SuikoGaiden series) to travel the Grasslands to learn more about her enemies and find her father who is connected to the Flame Champion.

Geddoe is a mysterious mercenary and Captain of the Twelfth Unit of the Southern Defense Force, which is part of a large battalion of mercenaries used to guard Harmonia's borders from invasions. While on a mission in the Grasslands, Geddoe's unit gets orders to investigate the rumors of the return of the Flame Champion and to obtain his True Fire Rune if possible. With several connections within the Grasslands and Harmonia, Geddoe finds the sudden interest in the Flame Champion to be a bit too coincidental and begins investigating the issue which leads him to learn that not only is someone trying to re-spark the Zexen/Six Clan conflict, but also mobilize Harmonian forces to take advantage of the conflict. Geddoe's journey takes him farther than most of the characters and explores his mysterious connection with the Fire Bringers and their leader, the Flame Champion.

A fourth POV character is also unlocked concerning Thomas, a young boy of about twelve who hails from the North Lands and is the illegitimate son of a Zexen Noble. Wishing to meet his father after his mother's death, his father sets him up in a rundown castle far to the north of the capital to save himself from scandal. Now Lord of the Castle, Thomas is tasked by the few remaining inhabitants to try to revitalize the commerce of the region and Thomas finds himself both discovering the castles connections to the Flame Champion, his own good business sense, and dealing again with an outsiders perspective on the Zexen Six Clans disputes. All three POV characters pass through at some point and Thomas actually fulfills the role of collecting new party members. There is a fifith POV character obtained if you beat the game with all 108 Stars of Destiny collected and it fills in some more backstory to the main conflict but I won't spoil it because it's actually one of the best rewards in the series for doing the whole collectathon.

Each of the three main protagonists get about three chapters to complete their story, and you must complete all three characters chapters to finally move onto the the final two chapters of the games conflict. It's interesting how well each of the characters tales intertwine with each other. The game deals with serious topics such as war crimes, cycle of revenge that maintains these types of constant conflicts, the idea of what it means to be a hero for the people, and cultural identity. One of the more detailed plotlines involves the Bug Riders, who were former members of the Grassland Clans before Harmonia took over their territory during the Flame Bringer War fifty years ago. Subjected to Harmonia's caste system, the group is mobilized by Harmonia to attack their former allies in the hopes they can finally be upgraded to second class citizens where they can finally gain some rights. The issue is that some of the older members of the clan still maintain loyalty to their former allies and the hope they will one day be liberated, while the new generation raised in Harmonia can't see themselves being liberated and are simply trying to find an alternate method to better their people. The game delves into complicated issues like that and despite the fantasy elements all around, the game handles most of it's serious topics incredible well.

In fact, the game's incredibly strong cast is one of the best things about the game. Thanks to the perspective switch with the POV characters, each character has their own large collection of allies and characters to explore which allows for the player to feel more intimate with the series usual staggering amount of characters. There are also quite a few shout-outs to the previous entries as many recruits are either grown up versions of some of the child characters from previous games such as Tuta the medic, rich bitch Lilly Pendragon of Tinto, and the final conclusion to Futch's story arc which began all the way back in the first game. You even meet some of the kids of characters from previous entries and even the cantankerous Star Dragon Sword makes an appearance although without the wonderful Viktor/Flik duo outside of a name drop. While most entries are pretty self-contained, Suikoden III has enough shout-outs and story depth to make it more rewarding to have played through the previous entries. Sadly, the Save Data feature is a bit of a dud in this entry as it doesn't net you a whole lot like the previous game or Suikoden Tactics.

On the gameplay side of things, Suikoden III is much more experimental than the rest of the franchise barring spin-offs. While it still stays true to most of the series formula, the game features a new turn based battle system that fully incorporates a semi-realistic take on 3D battles. What I mean by this is that while characters start in their typical sides, once the battle starts, the characters and enemies will move around the battle field to obtain their objective and the game has friendly fire with the magic system. This introduces some unique tactical depth to the series that is surprisingly lacking for a series about mobilizing armies to win wars, but also brings a lot of contrived annoyances that makes the system pretty divisive among the fanbase. Most fans dislike the friendly fire aspect with magic while others were put off by the new buddy system which took away direct control of half your party. If you can either learn to look past these issues or simply embrace the novelty they bring to generic turn base combat, you'll find that SIII actually has one of the more rewarding battle systems in the series. A bigger blemish on the game is the world map mechanics that make getting anywhere in the game more tedious than usual, especially jarring since the character who can teleport you around shows up incredibly late in this entry.

Less controversial is the game's new Skill System where the player can put points into special background skills to improve a characters battle capabilities. There is a wide-breath of skills and each character has their own level of proficiency with them which makes most of the games fighters feel really distinct from each other which helps address a large complaint most people have with the series. With that said, the mechanic is overpowered in the players favor and outside of appearing again in Suikoden Tactics, has largely been gutted or heavily modified in the later installments. Another new feature is the Mount system where certain characters can ride large beast allies and combine their stats for extra power. This also was deemed too powerful and kind of got nerfed in subsequent games.

In series tradition, SIII introduces a new Army Battle system in which your army must capture nodes on a map and can garner benefits by having allies in adjacent nodes helping them to attack enemy units. What's really unique about it is that the actual battles are played out in a semi-A.I. battle system similar to the Battle Ogre series where your units are composed of the allies you gain and you choose to either attack, defend, or retreat against enemies and the computer determines what attacks you use. What the game kind of fails to mention is that your characters stats are directly taken from the main game, so having a unit with a character you barely use will often lead to disastrous results whereas an overleveled constant party member can sometimes solo the battle fields if the RNG gods feel generous. This makes using the whole playable cast even more important than previous installments. This is especially crucial when the game throws in Yuber or the actual Harmonian Army to deal with as both are as absolutely terrifying in battle as the series builds them up to be.

Suikoden III has an odd place in the series history. Despite being the best selling entry, it's regarded as the middle child of the franchise. It's the third entry in the series but canonically the last entry on the timeline. It was the final game developed by the series creator before he left Konami, but the game drops a few of the legacy myth arcs of the series and instead introduces a whole new collection of myth arcs which were sadly never gone into as all of the later entries sidestepped the issues by being prequels. It's the last entry to really innovate the franchises basic mechanics, but a lot of it got ignored in the fourth entry while the fifth entry borrowed more from Suikoden II. It changes a lot of the series narrative focus such as getting an incredibly late start to the army building side of things and spends more time delving into the social aspects of the conflict. It drops the silent protagonist and the players ability to change their name. So it's kind of divisive, though not in the same "love it/hate it" way you usually see in other franchises. Of anything, most fans are simply sad that a lot of the new plot threads introduced in the game will never see resolution and several of the series myth arcs like are dropped in later installments. Overall, despite it's flaws and being a semi-fugly looking early PS2 JRPG, I honestly feel it's one of the best JRPGs on the system.

I love Suikoden III, and it remains a great game. However, the series' entrance into 3D mechanics was not without its glitches, and from my last replay a couple of years ago, the 3D mechanics (or lack thereof) have not aged well. This includes a clunky, fixed camera and your character sprite "running" at the pace of a 70-year-old grandmother on her second hip-replacement. I've never been so happy to see Viki. After that, my biggest gripe is probably the 999,999 potch limit.

That being said, I still tend to think more highly of S3 than S5, because S3's cast and storytelling are just fantastic. I even began enjoying the battle system, except for that friendly fire bulltrout making the game's True Rune virtually unusable (not that Hugo needs any magic to demolish everything in his path in chapters 4 and 5). My first time through, I thought the game had a very nice range of difficulty and challenge. I liked the concept of the main story boss battles that were optional to win, and Yuber was a nightmare for major battles for my first few encounters. Of course, the skill system for your main party and mounts are easily broken (as is farming Fury runes), but that's not until late game anyway. And I really liked how your characters in major battles were linked to their level/skills/equipment, which rewarded you for putting in the effort of using more people; for the life of me, I'm not sure why that concept was never utilized again.

And then there's one of the best parts of S3: the stupidly hilarious theater mini-game. You can have any of your characters star in plays such as Romeo and Juliet, as well as Suikoden-themed stories from important events in previous games. Some of the characters are great actors and others, well... not so much.

Suikoden is a game I wish I had played when it first came out because I probably would have liked it better. I still liked the first two (haven't played the third), and the second has one of the best stories.

Proud to be the Unofficial Secret Illegal Enforcer of Eyes on Final Fantasy!When I grow up, I want to go to Bovine Trump University! - Ralph Wiggum

I've been kind of mulling over this one lately. In hindsight, I've talked a lot about FFIV in the last ten or so years, I even wrote an article about it for this forum for the fan magazine project we helped with a few years back. Part of me even considered just copy/pasting the unedited version of that article for this piece. My other thought was that I was doing a retrospective article series a few years back and I kind of stalled on IV because I frankly found myself in a position where I had too much to say, which is why that series of articles went on indefinite hiatus. So once again, I'm here and need to to write about this game and a bit frozen in place on where I should take this entry.

Like all of the Final Fantasy entries on this list, I'm not as inclined to really delve into "what is this entry?" like others because I know most of us are familiar with it and I'm sure some members could tell me things I didn't even know. Overall it's a bit redundant so I guess I'll simply settle with a bit of backstory about this game and my relationship with it.

One factor I rarely divulge about my gaming habits is that I sometimes associate music or times of the year for certain games or series. Like I usually get in the mood to play DQ in the fall because I had a knack for always playing through the game around that time. For IV, I associate the game with Christmas because I finally beat it a few days before the holiday and so I associate it with the decorations and music cause that was also going on while I was playing. I also associate it with certain cheesy 90s songs as well because I played it in a time frame where I was watching MTV and VH1 pretty religiously. I even picked up a song most people would say I have no business listening to because this song was on heavy rotation at the time of me playing through IV. Anyway, tangent aside, let's discuss my history with this game.

I had about three friends in middle school who were heavy RPG players that all kept pushing the genre on me. I resisted for as long as I could but eventually borrowed a copy of Secret of Mana and FFVI from one of my friends.Both games finally opened me up to liking the genre and soon I found myself in this annoying situation where I wanted more but being a broke middle school student without a real job my options were limited for birthday and Christmas shenanigans. I did purchase my friends copy of Secret of Mana but he refused to sell me VI and after a certain incident, wasn't as inclined to let me borrow it. So my first goal was to get my own copy of the game but it was super expensive back then and hard to find. Instead, I found Final Fantasy II (IV) which was my friends who lent me the games, favorite entry. I could afford it with my birthday cash and picked it up.

In some ways, I lucked out. My experience with the genre had been the two games he lent me and the Battletech game I used to play on my dad's computer, so turn based combat was still a novel idea for me and I appreciate the fact that every character was unique which kept the game feeling fresh. I often blame my introduction to the genre being these three games for why I generally prefer my party to have unique skills over systems where you get to pick and choose a party of blank slates. It was ultimately what I blame for my backlash against VII's Materia system years later.

Even though the game was lobotomized with it's translation, censorship, and Square's attempts to dumb it down for us stupid Yankees; I was able to look past all that and really get a feel for the games story and characters. I think it's a testament to this game how really memorable the cast is despite not having too much of a backstory and not having the same amount of screentime as later RPGs. I mean I love characters like Sahz, Ignis, and Balthier but I spent 50+ hours of getting to know them, but I may still rank someone like Tellah or Cecil over them because while they may not have as much time to be developed as their future descendants, the game sticks to what is important about them which leaves a more lasting impression on them. I don't remember every quip Balthier made in XII, I remember him confessing to Ashe about his past on Phon Coast and his final scenes with his father. I don't really remember much of Sahz's comic relief, I only really remember Chapter 8 and can't remember him doing anything afterwards. I can kind of remember a lot of Ignis' stuff since XV is a bit more fresh in my mind, but again, it's the major character moment that makes him memorable along with his almost always inappropriate catch phrase.

So even despite having all this extra time to be developed, it's only the major moments that we remember, which is why IV does work because almost every character has one if not two of these types of moments. From Cecil becoming a Paladin, to Tellah's suicidal casting of Meteo, to Edge having to mercy kill his parents, to the twins noble sacrifice to save the party. IV's plot is amateurish and hilariously bad in places, but it's filled to the brim with strong moments that leave a lasting impression.

IV is ultimately a game I've gone back and forth with in terms of why I like it. Basically, I debate with myself whether I love it purely for the nostalgia and how the game can whisk me back to my school days or whether there is something more to it and the game is actually a solid entry that can stand the test of time. Depending on when you ask me, I may give you a different answer. I would currently say that it's the latter, but modern gaming fans can easily lose sight of his accomplishment because the game lacks the bells and whistles the genre has kind of been saddled with over the years with in-depth customization systems, Action-RPG systems or elements in the game, and loads of extra mini-games and character skits to expand the time one spends with the game. In contrast, IV is much simpler and a product of a time when people didn't expect much from the genre, yet it does it's best to be as solid as it possibly can. I think it's a wonder that IV is probably the most balanced game in the series.

FFIV is truly a great entry in the series. Each time I think about it and what I like, it raises a little higher in my list of Final Fantasies. It took years before I realized and could admit to myself that I like FFIV more than I like FFVI, which places it in the top three. Its most prominent appeal is that its both simple and fun to play. There's no time-consuming materia system to swap out and get just right. You don't have to spend an extra twenty hours doing ridiculous side-quests and mini-games for the best stuffs. All you have to do is just sit down and enjoy the adventure..

So I have a little bit of a confession to make with this one, while I do love the Metroidvania gameplay setup, I definitely love the -vania part of that title more than the Metroid side. Not because I have anything against Metroid, but truth be told Super Metroid was my first entry in the series and the only one I ever beat. I own the original and Metroid II but acquired them years after the fact and they are trapped in my backlog hell with another 200 games you're probably wondering why they are not on this list. I also just didn't care for the direction Prime took the series and their is enough fan backlash against Other M and most Metroid related products released since then that I haven't really paid much attention to the series. Course with all that said, we're now sitting on entry 26 of this thread and I've got Super Metroid, I guess what I'm saying is that I like Metroid, but I'm certainly just a casual fan of the series.In hindsight, I feel I liked the last two games a bit more than this one but this is still an outstanding game on the SNES and perhaps it's just been too long since I played through it.

Set shortly after the events of Metroid II, where Samus basically went all genocide on the Metroid species, Samus handed over the last surviving member of the species to the government despite the poor thing having a childlike bond to her. Unfortunately, the facility studying the creature is attacked and Samus returns to find the Space Pirates of Zebes she vanquished in the first game have regrouped and are ready to rumble with her again over the last Metroid.

The game has the player return to the world of the first game, and you can even revisit the original rooms where Samus defeated Mother Brain. What I find the most striking about the game is it's wonderful atmosphere. If you love the Aliens franchise, the game pulls off a similar vibe as you explore the gloomy planet and facilities while almost everything is there to kill you like. Like most Metrodvania style games, the focus is on exploring the world and acquiring power ups to expand your ability to reach previously unreachable places on the map. It's actually more fun than it sounds as you have to platform and look for better weapon upgrades to prevent you from just becoming a bloody smear on some enemies shoe. I honestly always got excited finally working my way through an area and finding a new one. The "ghost ship" being a particular favorite especially with the semi-50s era inspired robots that wandered about it.

There is a real sense of accomplishment when find things like the grapple beam or the screw attack, especially since this genre loves to always shove out of reach stuff in front of your nose, so even backtracking isn't quite the chore you feel it would be as you try out your new abilities to see if you can uncover a secret or reach a new area. While the main enemies are not too difficult to deal with, the bosses in this game are exceptional with several memorable encounters and some real challenges to what you may feel is a tried and true strategy, like using super missiles until you fight Ridley and learn the hard way he can actually catch them and throw them back at you.

One of the elements I really liked about the game was some of the outside of the box thinking you can do to win battles. My all time favorite being the battle in the ocean stage against the giant shrimp monster who loves to grab you and rape you. You can blow up some side vents on the walls to break open an electric current. If the boss grabs you, you can use the grappling beam to latch onto the current and roast both of you, but as long as you've been looking around for all those health power-ups, chances are, you'll have more health than the boss and outlast him which is a surprisingly satisfying feeling.

The final confrontation is also worth mentioning, and frankly, it might be one of the best conclusions to a Nintendo game I've ever played. It's bittersweet and unexpected with a fun little god mode to play through and I feel it says a lot about the game's writing that so many emotions can be felt in a sequence where no one talks. I don't feel it's hard to see why people often feel Super Metroid is the definitive entry in the series with the exception of the Prime series. Overall, if you're looking for a sweet atmospheric sci fi thriller with an emphasis on exploration and semaless platfmoring and combat, then definitily check this game out.

So now we've reached the final PC exclusive on this list, and also one of the few titles on this list I make a point not to play very often, not because I'm over it, but because I have enough problems staying productive to not add this monstrous title into the mix.

For those who live under a rock and don't know what Civilization is, it's a classic Turn based strategy/sim game where you choose a culture and build their society over a few millennium. You can either win the game by world domination or building a space shuttle to send people to Alpha Centauri before anyone else. I usually send the ship and then spend the remaining time playing anti-christ as I see how quickly I can decimate the entire planet with my full nuclear arsenal.

Though there have been several sequels and spin-offs of the franchise, I've never really moved past the second installment, partly because of nostalgia, partly because playing the sequels would have involved buying them and installing them on my PC so I'm forever stuck with the temptation of playing it instead of you know... working.I know that sounds funny, but it's a real problem with this series. It may be one of the most addictive games for me on this list.

For me personally, I usually always shoot for getting as many of the Wonders of the Worlds as they are some of my favorite sequences in the game as you get really cool videos when you acquire one. I also adore the advisors which are all hilariously played by some actors who certainly had some fun with this job. Even cooler is how they change from toga wearing Greco-Roman knockoffs to Renaissance Italians, to bad U.S. knockoffs with one French woman. Despite all of this, Luxury plays his role forever as an Elvis knockoff. Thankfully, getting luxury on your side is a simple matter of raising the luxury tax by 10% and the guy will never bother you again. I don't think I've ever seen science mad at me either. Trade on the other hand...

I favored the English, Japanese, Russians and Babylonians in my playthroughs and I swear to god this game remembers stuff because I remember wiping the Aztecs out in one campaign and ever since, I almost always have them as an opponent and they make it a point to try and wipe me out specifically. I guess karma exists in gaming as well. Still I enjoy trying to balance out building functional cities that don't constantly rebel while also building my doomsday army to destroy my enemies. Sadly, I've never succeeded in conquering the world but I have achieved space colonization before everyone else.